During and after menopause, women often notice an increase in belly fat even if their weight stays the same. This is largely due to shifting hormone levels. As estrogen levels decline during perimenopause and after menopause, body fat distribution tends to change. Fat increasingly deposits around the abdomen instead of hips and thighs.
Several factors contribute to this change:
- Decreasing estrogen - Estrogen helps keep fat deposited around the hips and thighs. As estrogen drops, this protective effect goes away. More fat accumulates around the stomach area instead.
- Lower metabolism - Loss of estrogen and testosterone leads to a slower metabolic rate, making it easier to gain weight. Calories get stored as visceral belly fat. A slower metabolism also makes it harder to lose existing belly fat.
- Increased cortisol - Higher cortisol levels increase belly fat storage. Cortisol is a stress hormone that tends to rise as estrogen declines.
- Insulin resistance - Lower estrogen is linked to decreased insulin sensitivity. This causes more belly fat storage over time.
- Genetics - Genes influence where your body stores fat. If your genes favor abdominal fat, menopause can trigger fat storage around the middle.
Other factors like diet, exercise, and lifestyle habits also impact belly fat during menopause. Eating more calories than you burn leads to fat gain. Inactivity allows visceral fat to accumulate. Things that raise cortisol and lower metabolism can exacerbate belly fat as well.
Stress, poor
sleep, smoking, alcohol use, and various medications can all contribute.
Strategies to lose belly fat after menopause
Fortunately, proactive steps can reduce abdominal fat gain and promote belly fat loss after menopause:
- Exercise more - Aerobic, strength training, and high intensity interval training can all help burn visceral belly fat. Aim for 300 minutes per week. Weight training builds metabolism-boosting muscle.
- Eat a healthy diet - Focus on lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and healthy fats. Avoid processed foods, saturated fats and excess sugar. Getting enough fiber also helps weight loss.
- Manage stress - Lower cortisol with relaxing activities like meditation, yoga, massage and sufficient sleep.
- Consider hormone therapy - Systemic hormone therapy with estrogen may help reverse fat redistribution after menopause. Ask your healthcare provider. Localized estrogen creams are not effective for belly fat.
*Testosterone therapy can also help improve abdominal obesity in postmenopausal women, research shows. Balance Hormone Clinic offers cutting edge testosterone pellets for women that safely increase testosterone for 12 weeks at a time. This innovative therapy reduces belly fat while also boosting energy, strength and libido.
- Try other medications - Metformin and saxenda may aid stubborn belly fat loss. Discuss options with your doctor.
- Get enough sleep - Poor sleep increases belly fat via raised cortisol and shifted hormones. Aim for 7-9 hours nightly.
In summary, dropping estrogen levels together with lifestyle factors drive the accumulation of belly fat after menopause. Adjusting diet, activity levels and stress can all help. For some women, medications or hormone therapy offer additional solutions to counteract this frustrating challenge. Treatments at Balance Hormone Clinic target hormonal imbalance to reduce abdominal obesity and improve health during menopause.
